Sears Roebuck & Co. Run-around Regarding Riding Mower *UPDATE

We had 4 service calls scheduled with Sears cancelled(please see the ripoff report I filed). One was because the tech was ill, then the part never came in, then the company scheduled an appointment and called us the day of the cancel again because there was no tech covering the area that day. The final blow was when the tech for the 4th appoinment didn't show during our 8-12am timefram and we called and were told the tech was positively coming that day. After waiting all day we got a call at 3pm and were told the tech never even showed up for his 8am appointment or any of his other appointments that day. Because of 4 cancellations, and one appointment where the tech replaced the wrong part my husband and I lost 5 days pay from work. Plan on taking a vacation just to have your mower repaired

In the last two years I have had four different occasions to complain about Sears continuously changing policies. I have sent five different emails to "contact us". There is not that I can find a web site or address to address specific customer complaints. These people are right. The service people are not the problem. It is way above them. Break down in communications and it seems to be by design. No one from Sears has ever called me back. It says reply within "48" hours. My solution. Use up what I have bought from Sears and pursue other options! Might not have short term affect but with enough participants it might finally soak in. Remember about 8 years ago when Sears announced closing of quite a few ot their stores. Wonder Why!

I don't think the guy was so upset with the techs as he was with the overall customer service line. I to have had similar experiences with sears/whirlpool customer service. It seems as if all you get is a complete run around and no one has a solution or is willing to follow-up.

I don't think you techs really need to defend yourselves on this matter and I certainly don't think it helped the gentlemen that needed a solution to his mower.

I wished that companies would start taking seriously this customer service issue because sears, certainly does not have the market on poor customer service.

Sincerly,

Way to go Mike,

I to am a tech, and I agree with you 100%.

I have been with Sears for 5 years now, and there have not been any issues in this area like I have seen on this site. Sears says With all of our services, you have our promise - Satisfaction Guaranteed or Your Money Back! You just have to follow the right steps.

I do understand, and even apologize for you problems. You cant judge all 15,000 techs on one encounter, and lets not even get into the sub-contracted service.

Here is where I agree with Mike, we can not even carry the manuals on our vans now to use in time of need, ISO 9000 says so. With that in mind, you can see how it would be hard for one of use to start from square one to work on something.

The local store here has sold over 200 tractors per year for the last 3 years. Out of that 600 tractors I have seen one with actual failure of a part on tractor causing dead battery, so you can see how easy it is for us, with the time limits and the need to get a minimum of 7 calls per day completed to just change a battery and say thank-you sir. If it was just a regulator bad, well unless X amount of those are used in a given time frame, we cant have them on our van, and we would have to order one. Ordering parts is a bad thing now, we get written up for that, too...

Trust me when I say, most of us are out to take care of everyones problems, every day. There is just a lot more to the simplest things than meet the eye.

Thanks,

IAM CURRENTLY A SEARS TECH,AND A d**n GOOD ONE.JUST A LITTLE INFO ON YOUR TECH BASHING!!MOST OF THE PROBLEMS AT SEARS ARE NOT THE TECH THEMSELVES,BUT THE REST OF THE COMPANY,RE:800#.LACK OF TRAINING,CUTBACKS AND LACK OF MANPOWER//HOWEVER I DO UNDERSTAND YOUR FRUSTRATIONS.I DEAL WITH IT ON A DAILY BASIS..YOU NEED TO GO TO THE STORE WHERE YOU BOUGHT IT AND GET THE DISTRICT MANAGER INVOLVED.DONT DEAL WITH PEOPLE THAT REALLY HAVE NO CLUE.MY GOAL IS CUSTOMER SATISFACTION 100%.PLEASE REMEMBER,PLEASE DO NOT THROUGH ALL TECHS UNDER THE BUS,MOST OF THEM ARE VERY GOOD TECHS AND VERY GOOD PEOPLE

I have had similar "service" related problems with Sears Service Technicians. I am a retired ASE Master Service Tech and had to solve my own "Constant Dead Battery Problem" after several visits under my Sears Maintenance Agreement for my lawn tractor (and battery replacements) failed to correct the problem and the Sears Maintenance Agreement expired.

Problem Solved:
I purchased a Sears Tractor Service Manual and followed the instructions for Low-Dead Battery troubleshooting procedures. The procedures had me check the charging voltage at the battery with the engine running (11.5 vdc), then located and disconnected the output line from the VOLTAGE REGULATOR module and check the voltage there (should have been 13.9-14.5 vdc). It was only 11.5 vdc, and was told to replace the VOLTAGE REGULATOR module, which was mounted on the side of the upper right side of the engine. I ordered and replaced this VOLTAGE REGULATOR module (cost $58 + S&H - 3 times the cost of most automotice type voltage-regulator assemblies). This was 5+ years ago and I've only had to replace the last battery after 4 years of use.

The Sears Service Technicians only had to follow their own SEARS SERVICE MANUAL to find the problem and apparently WERE NOT referring to it or using its troubleshooting charts to help find problems.

It is difficult to respond without all the info, but here goes. In regards to the problem with the riding mower, is the problem with the battery or the mower itself? How long ago was the original purchase? It has been my experience that if the mower is in warranty and cannot be fixed, a sales associate at the store SHOULD be willing and able to resolve the problem. If all else fails, depending upon the age of the mower, replacement of the mower should also be an option at the store level. Try contacting the store manager at your location for resolution.

i am retired from sears service dept. and my job there was to research parts for cust. merchandise, and make sure the customer had a positive experience with any repair jobs they needed. in the 5 years since i retired, what has happened? i replaced customers merchandise including riding mowers among other things, if parts were on back order for so long that the customer was irritated and so was i. only common sense that satisfied customers return. i really miss helping customers with problems like those described. now i am in south carolina and the service dept here is closed, which i find stupid because this is such a big area. too bad the employees sears hires now dont know the meaning of true CUSTOMER SERVICE. I worked 27 years for sears when it was a good company not only to work for but to shop at.Remember what is over the door at every sears, satisfaction guaranteed or your money back!

This email is a rebuttal to RipOff #6760.
It was sent by bob at bob@aol.com.

Sears Roebuck & Co. Run-around Regarding Riding Mower (#6760)

They filed the following rebuttal to the above Rip-Off Report:

Their email: bob@aol.com
Their name: bob

Their relationship to the company: Supporter

Rebuttal:
I too in the past have had horrific problems with Sears repair services. My family in another state also had the same runarounds with stupid sears technicians and even stupider sears customer support personnel. I have written sears head quarters and only got back "so sorry, too bad" letters from sears. Once or twice burned I learned quickly, end of story I don't buy Sears appliances since they have them made from Whirl Pool and sears service just plain sucks. I get appliances straight from the source and have local repair men fix it right the first or second time, sears could never get it right 5 attempted times.